by A Mass Working People’s Organization is Entirely Possible and Urgently Necessary
By Shuvu Bhattarai
With their essay “To Win a Political Revolution, We Need a New Mass Organization” Jeremy Gong and Nick French have started a new debate inside and outside of DSA about the way forward to build toward a break from the Democratic Party. Jared Abbott and David Duhalde responded in Jacobin, “We Don’t Need Another New Progressive Organization.” Reform & Revolution member Stu S. discussed the proposals from the perspective of our caucus with an overall positive response. Peter Lucas and Sean Estelle argued with a more critical tone in “A Mass Socialist Organization to Meet the Moment.” Below, we publish a contribution from Shuvu Bhattarai, a member of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America in Queens, to this debate.
“To Win a Political Revolution, We Need a New Mass Organization,” comrades Jeremy Gong and Nick French of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) caucus Bread and Roses declared in Jacobin. They point to how, in this period of generalized crisis, there has been no organized opposition which has been able to represent the interest of the country’s working people at the national level. The Democratic Party repeatedly proves itself as an ineffective vehicle for delivering substantial pro-worker reforms, while an organized Republican Party is successfully advancing its assault on labor rights, abortion rights, and democracy.
They argue that socialists and progressives need to call on politicians on the national arena, specifically Senator Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and the Squad to build a new mass organization which can meet the needs of this moment.
The comrades believe that these politicians have the legitimacy among millions of working people to effectively call for an organization that unites the various progressive forces in the country, socialist organizations like DSA, labor unions, progressive parties, etc., into a common mass organization with the following characteristics:
- Democratic and Member-Based: “Local and national leaders should be elected by the members, and members should be able to influence the policy platforms of elected officials like Sanders through conventions and internal debates.”
- Supports Progressive Election Campaigns but also year-round organizing
- Working Class Funded: “Rejecting all corporate and billionaire donations, large unreported donations from anonymous sources, and donations from PACs, foundations, or other groups that launder capitalist cash.”
- Effectively non-partisan: The organization will support candidates from any party or independent so long as they advance the cause of the working people
In effect they believe that in the United States, at this moment, the recipe for a mass workers party hinges on the initiative of a handful of congress members, a recipe which they themselves believe is “a long shot.”
The position of Gong and French does not represent a unified consensus within Bread and Roses, the largest organized Marxist caucus in the DSA. In response, comrades Peter Lucas and Sean Estelle argue in the Socialist Call, the official publication of Bread and Roses, that A Mass Socialist Organization to Meet the Moment does not currently exist but is in the process of formation with the growth of the DSA.
Lucas and Estelle write that “[c]alling on Bernie and the Squad is a shortcut that skips the necessary preconditions to build working class power,” going on later to write that “[w]e need to rebuild the labor movement and build a class struggle electoral arm … with the hope of merging the two in the future into a workers party.”
They believe that calling for a new organization would take energy and focus away from DSA and believe that an organization called for by the politicians would not be democratic in character. However, they acknowledge the current disorganized and disparate state of left forces in the country. Their solution is DSA “working in coalition with other organizations and labor unions to build an engaged political bloc,” but are short on the details as to how this political bloc can get formed.
The core of the debate within Bread and Roses revolves around this question: Under conditions of crisis and the threat of a far-right government takeover, how can we unite the activist layer of the working class, agitate and activate countless more workers, and organize them into a mass working people’s party?
Fortunately for us, in the United Kingdom, under conditions similar to our own, a mass movement which has the potential to develop into a mass working people’s party is developing at a rapid pace.
Enough is Enough
In the midst of a tightening labor market, slashing of wages, growing inflation, hunger, housing insecurity and homelessness, a militant minority has declared “Enough is Enough!” and is calling on all working people in the country to join and organize their communities and workplaces for a better life.
Enough is Enough is the name of this movement and it is organized around 5 demands:
- A Real Pay Raise: Tying public sector pay to increase in line with inflation and creating a pathway for a £15 p/h minimum wage.
- Slash Energy Bills: Cancel the price hike instituted in October, bring energy companies into public ownership and increase public investment in renewable energy.
- End Food Poverty: Enshrine the Right to Food Law and put it into practice by introducing universal free school meals, community kitchens, and reinstating the £20-a-week Universal Credit uplift. A new independent regulatory body is created that will hold the government to account with oversight and endorsement powers.
- Decent Homes for All: Cap rents, build over 100 thousand public homes a year, and introduce a charter for rent rights.
- Tax the Rich: Introduce a wealth tax, raise taxes on corporate profits and on the top 5 percent of earners, close tax dodging loopholes, increase capital gains tax, and implement new taxes on speculation. In addition, the platform calls for lowering the tax burdens on working people, starting with the reversal of the hike to National Insurance.
According to their website, Enough is Enough was initially formed through the support of socialist politicians, unions, community organizations, and a socialist magazine:
- Communications Workers Union: A union of postal, telecoms, financial services, and tech workers with over 200,000 members.
- ACORN: A mass membership organization of low-income people.
- Fans Supporting Foodbanks: Joint initiative between football fans to tackle food insecurity in communities.
- Right to Food Campaign: A campaign to enshrine a national Right to Food law.
- Tribune: A socialist website and magazine which was bought by Jacobin in 2018
- MP Zarah Sultana: A vocal socialist and Labour Party member elected in 2019 to the House of Commons. She joined the Labour Party in 2011, was elected into youth leadership, and would be a vocal supporter of Jeremy Corbyn. As an MP she has denounced “40 years of Thatcherism,” has advocated for a Green New Deal, and is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, a left-wing formation within the Labour Party.
- MP Ian Byrne: Co-Founded Fans Supporting Foodbanks. In 2018, Byrne was elected as a counselor to the Liverpool City Council. In 2019, he was elected to the House of Commons. He was a supporter of the Corbyn leadership, is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, and is spearheading the Right to Food campaign.
In an article in Tribune, MP Zarah Sultana explains why Enough is Enough was launched. She explains that the present moment for working people in the UK is a moment of crisis, with all working people being hurt by sharp increases in the cost of living. At the same time corporations and billionaires have profited off of this crisis, with their profits and wealth continuing to increase.
Rather than helping the working people, the UK Government has instead slashed social security funding and allowed energy prices to increase, with leading figures in the state bank and government calling for “pay restraint” and “pay discipline,” basically telling working people to suffer quietly. However, the masses of working people have begun to adopt a fighting spirit, with a major act of resistance by the railway workers in the RMT union sparking a wave of strikes across different industries and sectors.
The head of the RMT union, Mick Lynch, has emerged as a symbol of resistance, going on major news platforms and media outlets to spread awareness about RMT workers demand for a 7 percent wage increase and to refute capitalist talking points to the public at large.
The Tories, the equivalent of the US Republican Party in the UK, has attempted to shift blame for the suffering of working people to migrants and refugees, and ramped up their campaign to demonize trans people.
Sultana explains that while this strike movement is developing and while the Tories and the right-wing media continue their campaign of demonizing the most vulnerable in society there must also be a generalized left response which clearly articulates the needs and common demands of the working people. It is under this consideration that Enough is Enough was launched.
The Enough is Enough website was launched in August 8, with a video call to action for “building real organization for the working class” featuring Mick Lynch, Zarah Sultana, rank-and-file workers, among others. Enough is Enough will be planning rallies across the country and the movement will be entering into different picket lines with the purpose of building class solidarity among all of the working people in the country.
Since the campaign’s launch its first rally was held on August 17 with over 2,000 in attendance and many being turned away due to the venue’s capacity. It has gained over 450 thousand sign-ups for membership. This bears repeating, a membership of over 450 thousand in 16 days since its launch. Furthermore, the gravity of this movement is attracting several other unions, organizations, MP’s, and even celebrities to join in support. The campaign is planning over 50 rallies over the next month.
Perhaps most importantly, the campaign is indicating its willingness to use physical force in the form of a general mass action on October 1 in order to push forward its demands.
These demands and the plan of action are clearly resonating with working people in the United Kingdom. While the movement is currently run in a top-down direction, the potential exists for the hundreds of thousands of members to be mobilized and push for the transformation of the campaign into a permanent democratic and independent working people’s party. A party built through the strength of its working class membership, with the ability to force through its demands through strategic work-stoppages across different industries and sectors and other mass actions.
While the demands of Enough is Enough do not cover the growing threat of nuclear war, tackle the issue of police violence, or address the undemocratic structure of the UK government and constitution, it is an excellent starting point for a mass democratic workers organization which can take the initiative to grow and develop its political direction through debate and discussion among its membership.
Furthermore it reveals that under conditions of crisis, an organization gaining the support of hundreds of thousands or even millions can be built in a short period of time if it is able to tap into the general needs and desires of the working people through a concrete plan and has pre-existing activist forces necessary to spread news of this plan far and wide.
Enough is Enough for the Working People of the United States
This movement is strikingly relevant to the working people of the United States. The same general problems facing the working people of the United Kingdom; increasing cost of living and inequality, material impacts of climate change, food insecurity, increasing attacks on marginalized groups and the growth of a far-right movement, etc; these are problems that the working people of the US face in a more intense and brutal form.
As Senator Sanders noted in his remarks about the ineffectiveness of the corporate handout and signature Biden legislation called the Inflation Reduction Act, the USA has “half of our people living paycheck to paycheck,” “the highest childhood poverty of almost any major nation on Earth,” “70 million Americans are uninsured or under-insured, when we pay twice as much for health care as the people of almost any other major nation, when some 60,000 people a year die because they cannot afford to go to a doctor when they need to,” “45 million Americans are struggling to pay student debt,” “55% of senior citizens are trying to survive on an income of $25,000 a year or less,” “600,000 people are homeless sleeping out on streets across the country” with “18 million households are spending an incredible 50 percent of their incomes for housing,” all the while “we have more wealth and income inequality than at any time in the last 100 years with 3 people owning more wealth than the bottom half of American society, with the top 1% owning more wealth than the bottom 92%, with 45% of all new income going to the top one percent, and with CEOs of large corporations making 350 times more than their average workers.”
Also, similar to the UK, workers in the US have begun to fight back in a historic way. After the largest protest wave in US history following the murder of George Floyd and a period of calm, there has been a resurgence of working-class activity. The first Amazon facility in the US was unionized on April 1, 2022 by the independent Amazon Labor Union and over 225 Starbucks stores have unionized with Starbucks Workers United after their first victory in December 2021. There is an overall surge in union organizing with a 57 percent increase in petition filings compared to the fiscal year 2021.
Teamsters United, a reform slate in one of the largest and arguably most powerful unions in the country, won the Presidency and a controlling majority of the Teamsters leadership in November 2021.The militant new leadership, headed by Sean O’Brien, has promised to go on the offensive by increasing organizing efforts in non-unionized workplaces and preparing for a massive national strike ahead the UPS contract expiration in 2023. The United Auto Workers won a referendum for “one person one vote” in 2021 and is currently in the process of a new leadership election with results on November 29th. This June, Labor Notes, a cross-union training and news organization, held its largest ever convention with over 4000 attendees representing workers from scores of different unions and worker organizations.
In the face of growing evictions and rising rents, tenant organizations have spiked with organizers winning certain legal protections for renters across the country. After the Supreme Court’s undemocratic and illegitimate decision to overturn Roe V. Wade in June, mass protests erupted throughout the country. In Kansas, supposedly a secure Republican state, there was a surge of voter turnout to ensure that abortion rights were protected in a referendum on August.
More immediately, there is a chance that within a few weeks the US may face a national railway strike for the first time this millennium. This could open up the floodgates for a massive upsurge in strike activity in different sectors, an upsurge already taking place with thousands of teachers and nurses already on strike. Furthermore, all of these tensions are exacerbated by the Biden-appointed leadership of the Federal Reserve, which is increasing interest rates and borrowing costs to purposely drive up mass layoffs and unemployment, all in a bid to lower wages and control inflation.
The general point being made here is this: The working people of the US are fighting back with increased intensity and pre-conditions are developing for an independent general working people’s movement as a response to the general cost-of-living and political crisis.
This leads us back to the debate sparked by comrades Gong and French.
How can a mass workers party be formed in the United States?
When Enough is Enough was announced, Bernie Sanders retweeted in support. Enough is Enough was also founded by a militant minority of unions, mutual aid groups, a socialist magazine, and two House of Commons politicians, the equivalent of the House of Representatives in the US. Importantly, it was founded not on the basis of personality but on clear demands that represented the interests of the working people.
At this historical moment, with government institutions facing extremely low popularity, a Democratic Party actively blocking progressives, the growing threat and likelihood of a Republican takeover of Congress and the Presidency by 2024, and an upsurge of militancy, organizing, and strike activity, a two year timeframe has opened up for a mass working people’s party to enter into the political arena and break up the two-party system. Before the Republican Party, bent on destroying labor law and wielding the full might of an executive branch with immense emergency powers, assumes power, a mass working people’s party that can organize mass action and strategic use of force must be created as a counterweight.
Comrades Gong and French are correct in pinpointing the current dispersed nature of the workers movement and the need for unity under a new mass organization. However, they neglect to mention a political program which speaks to the immediate needs of the working people, needs which attracts them to organization in the first place. They incorrectly point to celebrity progressive politicians as the figures solely capable of bringing to existence such an organization, when they can only be a part of the equation and at that a subordinate part.
On the other hand, comrades Lucas and Estelle are correct that in order to build unity among progressive forces, DSA must work in coalition with labor unions and other organizations in a political bloc, but they are incorrect in asserting that a mass workers party will emerge as a consequence of the growth of the DSA and are further incorrect in asserting that the pre-conditions do not exist for the formation of a mass workers party in the country.
Using the ongoing experience of the Enough is Enough campaign in the UK as a guide for orienting to the growing organizing, strike, and protest movement in the US, all activists fighting for the interests of working people can move forward with a strategy to build a mass party to meet the needs of the present moment.
As the organizing, strike, and protest movement develops among the working people in the US, so too will the tendency to unite these movements under a common program. This unity can take organizational form through a cross-union, cross-organization coalition, based on the growing cost-of-living and democratic crisis in the country.
This coalition is already taking place on an informal basis. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade, several unions condemned the decision and issued statements defending the “fundamental right to healthcare and bodily autonomy.” Starbucks Workers United and the Amazon Labor Union also issued similar statements, with @SBWorkersUnited tweeting “Abortion rights are labor rights are human rights. All unions must fight for our fundamental rights. Fuck the Supreme Court.”
The numerous strikes and rallies held by the Starbucks workers fighting for a contract have attracted the physical support of several different unions, progressive groups, and socialist organizations. This cross-union, cross-organization unity was on clear display during an Amazon Labor Union Rally ahead of the second unionization vote at a Staten Island Facility. Among the speakers and organizations at the rally were Kshama Sawant of Socialist Alternative, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Randi Weingarten of the AFT, Sara Nelson of the Association of Flight Attendants, the American Postal Workers Union, dozens of DSA members, unionizing starbucks workers, and workers of numerous other unions. Among the speakers were also Congresswoman AOC and Senator Sanders,who is currently attending and boosting rallies throughout the country of various strike actions that are in development.
However, despite the growing cross-union and cross-organization solidarity, if the struggles of workers are allowed to remain as simply the struggle between individual segments of workers and individual employers, while the force of the US government is dominated by the employing class, then we fight on losing terrain and the working people as a whole suffer.
Thus, this informal coalition of unions, socialist groups, and politicians must be concretized as soon as possible. As activists in the largest socialist organization in the country, we can and should mobilize for an open convention, a United Front for a Working Peoples Bill of Rights.
As comrades Lucas and Estelle correctly point out, DSA already has existing connections with different mass organizations and unions. It also already has politicians in the local, state, and federal level as members. We can and should leverage these connections and organize an open convention for unions, tenant associations, socialist organizations, community groups, and organizations with a mass working-class base to debate and draft a Working Peoples Bill of Rights alongside a democratic mass membership organization called the Working Peoples Union to execute the demands.
The Bill of Rights, with demands such as increasing the minimum wage and tying it to inflation, repealing Taft Hartley and passing the Pro Act, concretizing abortion rights into federal law, passing Medicare for All and a Green New Deal, instituting rent caps, cutting taxes on the working people while increasing taxes on the rich, community control of policing, etc, would speak to the immediate needs of the working people. The demands would be backed up with the will to action, making it clear to all members that it is their duty to organize and grow the movement, so that we can build the millions of members required for general mass action to force the change we need.
These demands should be introduced through the support of a Congressperson into the US Congress and a website and different communication methods should be set up like the Enough is Enough campaign so that working people can easily sign up and organize. Rallies should be planned in every major city and every picket line for these general demands which speak to the collective interests of all of the country’s working people to be popularized.
As the Enough is Enough campaign has proven, all that it takes is a militant minority coalition with an already existing activist base and mass media ties to build such a movement. The main problem that is facing the workers movement in the US today is not that the working people are unwilling to fight, but that there exists no organization with clear demands and a plan of action that captures its fighting spirit.
Building for this united front movement does not erase DSA and other socialist organizations. Rather, a united front movement will keep us in intimate contact with the fighting sections of the entire working class in the US, far beyond what the socialist left is currently capable of, and will allow revolutionary socialists to spread and popularize the necessity of a new socialist constitution within a mass organization with the power to force it into law.
Building a new mass organization is not a “long shot,” it is an urgent necessity which is entirely possible. To make this a reality, we must begin to organize amongst ourselves and use whatever leverage we have as individuals to organize a Working Peoples Bill of Rights campaign.
Shuvu Bhattarai
Shuvu Bhattarai is a member of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America in Queens.
